This invention relates to a device for improving a baseball player""s batting skills and enabling the player to develop their skills by repetitively practicing his or her swing. More particularly this invention relates to a light weight, low mass, economically priced device that can be easily transported and set up for use. Although the structure of this invention is light weight, has a low mass and is economically priced it can withstand being struck by a baseball bat without being damaged. It is also an important feature of this invention that when the training device is struck by a baseball bat, that has missed its target, the training device will offer little resistance to being knocked over. As a result when the player makes a bad swing he or she is not punished by the bat coming to an abrupt stop and stinging their hands.
There have been many attempts to provide training devices to assist baseball players to improve their skills, especially their hitting skills. The following are examples of such devices.
The Morrison U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,070 discloses a trainer tee that creates a target zone that guides a bat, swung by a player toward a ball placed at a fixed elevated position above the ground.
The Steward U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,645 discloses a baseball trainer device that is intended to increase the power of a player""s baseball swing.
The Nau U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,771 discloses a batting practice device for aiding a batsman to perfect his swing including a pair of elongated, vertically spaced, tubular arms that are resiliently mounted at one end to a mounting plate.
The Sinclair et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,036 discloses a batting practice device comprising a support post with a target apparatus mounted on its upper portion. The target apparatus includes a pair of arms that extend outwardly from the post. A guide frame is mounted on the free end of each arm and a plurality of flexible elements extend into the strike zone to provide resistance to a swung bat passing through the strike zone.
The patent to Russo et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,733 discloses a batting practice impact device including an upper and lower yieldable elongated rubber elements that taper toward their free ends. The upper and lower yieldable elongated elements are mounted such that their free ends overlap and the swung bat can spread the overlapped ends apart.
The purpose of this invention is to provide a device that can be used to aid in the development of correct baseball batting skills. The uniquely effective design of this invention, its simplicity, ease of use, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness results in a significant advancement over the prior art devices. The device has a simple design and a minimum number of parts. The training device is made from light weight plastic and rubber which enables the training device to be easily transported by even a young child. Furthermore, the simplicity of the design enables a small child to set it up for use without the aid of an adult. A very important feature of this invention is that in the event that the player completely misses the target zone and strikes a solid portion of the training device, the light weight and low mass of the training device will permit it to be knocked over without stinging the players hands. This is very important because such a complete miss of the target zone is most likely to occur when the player is first introduced to the training device and if he or she has a bad experience further use of the training device will not be pursued. Through the use of this invention a student baseball players can learn proper batting techniques such as stance, swing, visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination, point of impact and follow-through. All of this can be practiced and learned without the need of a pitcher, catcher, or outfielder to retrieve balls. The invention can be used as a teaching aid for a coach in formal instructional situations as well as for individual practice at a ball field or at home. The invention can be used in combination with a video camera to perform swing analysis studies. Furthermore, the invention is adjustable to accommodate people of different heights, it is easy to assemble and is compact to store.
All of the above discussed prior art devices have a large number of heavy metal parts some of which must be machined. These device would be heavy, expensive to produce, difficult to transport, complex to set up and would be a hazard to a player if the swing was not in the target zone.